Do you deliver a lot of presentations to a variety of audiences? Language may sometimes become a communication barrier, but with Machine Learning being on the top tech these days, we already have translation and speech recognition services. A Microsoft Garage project combines all of them to present you Presentation Translator.
Presentation Translator adds live subtitles to your slideshow in more than 60 languages. It is an excellent addon for PowerPoint if your audience keeps changing and you deliver presentations and discussions in different countries.
UPDATE: Presentation Translator, a Microsoft Garage Project, has now graduated and is integrated natively into Microsoft PowerPoint.
Presentation Translator PowerPoint addon
Presentation Translator is built on Microsoft Translator API and powered by Microsoft Cognitive Services. It actively uses Machine Learning to teach itself from your voice and speech. If you start using this tool right away, you can see it improve over time. Now live subtitles. There are many other cool features that this tool comes loaded with. Read on to find out.
Live Subtitles
If you’ve downloaded and installed the addon, it is time to get started with live subtitles. First of all, it is required that you complete your actual presentation and then proceed with enabling subtitles.
Go to the ‘Slideshow’ tab and select ‘Start Subtitles’. There is some information here that you need to specify. Firstly, the language you will speak and the language in which the subtitles should be displayed. Then you have to choose the recording device, and you’d pretty much done.
There is another optional feature called Customize Speech Recognition. If enabled, the translator will go through all your slides and get familiar with the content and the technical terms you may speak during the presentation. I recommend this option as it may take longer to set up but ensures accurate subtitles.
Hit the ‘Next’ button and wait for the translator to load, and you are good to go. Now you will see a separate subtitle window. You can speak something to see if it is working. There are a few customizations that you can make. You can choose between different subtitle locations and also customize the font size.
Audience Participation
Presentation Translator allows your audience to connect to your presentation in their desired language. It is a great feature, and an audience not understanding your language can even follow along with your presentation. The tool adds a new slide on top of other slides, displaying a QR Code and a Link. The audience can follow any of these to start a translator session in their language on their device. You can customize or completely stop subtitles for your audience. You can select ‘Audience Mute’ to no longer show the subtitles or lock conversations from Settings to prevent new users from joining your presentation.
Translate Slides
Yes, you can translate your entire presentation without changing any formatting or other settings. You need to select a language in which your presentation currently is and the language you want to translate into. The addon will save a separate file with the changes, and the original presentation will not be affected.
Save Transcript
After the presentation is over, you can save the entire transcript in ‘txt’ format. You can rectify any errors in the transcript and release it for the audience’s reference.
It is the best PowerPoint addon I have ever seen. It is an intelligent use of Machine Learning and Cognitive Services. Although you may sometimes find some glitches in live subtitles, ensure that you have a good recording device and try to speak clearly. Make sure you add subtitles to your next official presentation.
How do I translate a PowerPoint with Google Translate?
You can use the Google Translate upload feature to translate any PowerPoint file. The tool allows you to upload the files to Google, using source and destination language to complete the process. The service supports .docx, .pdf, .pptx, or .xlsx.
Does PowerPoint have a Translator?
Microsoft PowerPoint natively supports translation allowing anyone to translate a presentation, and offers subtitles that can be used by the viewers while watching the presentation. You can also use the Presentation Translator, which helps translate any presentation on-demand.
